The new granite plaque, mounted on existing mortared stone facing the Blair Bridge.

Westside Pioneer photo

A light granite marker with black etched text was installed last week atop a mortared-stone pillar where a bronze piece had been mounted for nearly 33 years before thieves tried to steal it in January.
The location is a small parking lot on the east side of North 30th Street, near the stone bridge built by John Blair, who was the landscape gardener for Colorado Springs founder William Palmer. The bridge is now part of the city's Foothills Trail.
Dated June 1, 1980, the plaque identifies the bridge, along with the fact that it is on 37 acres donated to the City of Colorado Springs by the late A.G. and Margaret Hill.
The new marker was donated by their daughter, Lyda Hill, who also built the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center and established the foundation that now owns and operates it.
The verbiage on the new marker is the same as that on the original.
The replica was made by Rocky Mountain Memorial.
City Parks removed the bronze plaque after finding evidence of criminals chiseling around it, trying to pry it out. Metal thefts in general have become a crime problem in recent years. For example, last year on the Westside another bronze plaque, identifying an 1860s fort location, was stolen, and so was a historic jail
cell, with both incidents blamed on metal thieves.
According to Linda Carter, a spokesperson for the Garden of the Gods Visitor & Nature Center, the granite is “very pretty,” but not of value to thieves.
“I've already seen visitors to the area reading it, so it's good that it's back in,” she said.